


Maui

by TracingHerWay



Category: The Handmaid's Tale (TV), The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-06-23 14:36:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19703392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TracingHerWay/pseuds/TracingHerWay
Summary: Nick, June and Holly finally make it to the beach. Oneshot.





	Maui

Sunshine. That’s all Nick can feel. On his skin, warm, flooding his face, seeping through his closed eyelids, as it beams down on him. He’s grateful for it. He doesn’t take anything for granted now.

He’d been reading, but Holly had called to him from the beach. They have a little hut, right near where the grass meets the sand. He’s only metres away and their voices are his background noise. Music to his ears. He could listen all day.

He stands and looks up, shielding his eyes, and smiles as he catches their silhouettes. They’re playing together, mother and daughter, running. Hair blowing in the wind; one blonde, the other curly brown, both drying salty in the sea air.

They look so free.

“Daddy!” she calls again.

He walks down to them, barefoot.It’s so soft on his feet. No heavy boots. He has on a loose T-shirt, shorts. No more black.

Holly is screaming, laughing, splashing on the shoreline as the waves creep up to her ankles and then recede. June is pretending to chase her.

“I’m gonna get you!” she teases.

“Daddy!” Holly squeals. “Help me!”

He runs down to her and sweeps her up, spinning her round, like she’s flying, and she screams again with glee.

June laughs as he bundles their daughter into his arms, and she buries her face in the crook of his neck, pretending to hide. “I’ve got you” he says quietly, and plants a kiss on the crown of her head.

She squeezes him, lets him hold her, but she will only be still for a few moments.

“Put me down!” She wriggles, and he sets her back on the ground. He holds her hand for as long as he can reach, and then she’s off, on to something else. Spotting her footprints in the wet sand, doubling back and tiptoeing between them in a little dance.

He’s enchanted by her, this perfect little person that they’ve made. She’s safe here. No one can touch her.

He looks over at June and she’s gazing back, and her face says _It doesn’t get better than this_.

He pulls her into him, wraps his arms around her hips and kisses her, out in the open. They smile, pressing their foreheads together and they slowly breathe each other in. All the time in the world.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

They always say it back to each other, these days.

It all stands still. The waves washing up, down, up, down, rocking them gently; the only hint of seconds passing. After a minute, Holly comes back to them and reaches for his leg, sandwiching herself in between them. She looks up and giggles cheekily.

“Up!”

He lifts her on to his shoulders and her tiny fingers curl round small tufts of his hair.

June wraps her arm around his and nestles her face in to his shoulder. They walk together, along the beach, as the sun starts to set behind them.

All he feels is peace.

There’s no one else here. Just the three of them.

No one else in the world.

***

There’s another world, far away from here, where she was a Handmaid, and he was a Guardian—an Eye. It was a brutal place, but they found each other, though they couldn’t be together.

In that world, he was her rock, her escape. She was his purpose, his fire, his reason to fight.

They had a baby. Their miracle. He held her just once, and then she was gone.

They sent him off to fight. And he never came home.

He’s not in that world anymore.

He’s here, in Maui, on the beach.

**Author's Note:**

> Kind of hate myself a little bit for this, so I apologise. But at least, if anything does happen to Nick (please God, no)… in my head, this is where he’ll be. It's a small comfort.
> 
> This was kind of shorter than I'd like but I felt it was done. I do have plans for other stories. Feedback is always appreciated! 
> 
> Thanks for reading.


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